Float Fishing for Luderick: How to Perfect Your Rig and Land More Fish

Luderick, also called blackfish, are found along Australia's east coast and are most often caught on a float fishing rig. New South Wales has plenty of luderick fishing on offer — Sydney Harbour and the surrounding ocean rocks hold healthy, easy-to-catch stocks. Their range runs from southern Queensland down through central South Australia and northern Tasmania.

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They Grow to 70cm

Luderick are schooling fish that grow up to 70cm and 4kg, though most you catch will be closer to half that. They're excellent sport and taste great on the table — hard to beat spending a day float fishing for luderick once you've found a decent school.

In estuaries and harbours, look for them around rocky outcrops with deeper drop-offs and weed beds. Smaller fish turn up in as little as two metres of water around piers, pylons and rocks inside the harbour, and jetties and breakwalls are also worth a look — plenty are caught on a spin reel off the wharf.

Rock Platforms, Piers and Breakwalls

Ocean rock platforms are a popular target for luderick — spots that already have weed growing naturally are usually good ones to try. In the estuary, start fishing around six feet deep; on ocean rock platforms, start around ten feet. Adjust your depth if you're not getting bites to find where the fish are sitting in the water column.

Luderick aren't especially nocturnal and are caught almost entirely during the day. Early morning and late afternoon are good times, especially if low tide falls an hour and a half either side of sunrise or sunset — low tide lets you get closer to the water's edge. Always keep an eye on the swell, and wear cleats and a life vest.

Rod and Reel

A 10 to 14 foot rod suits float fishing the rocks for luderick — the extra length makes float fishing more enjoyable, and checking your bait at ten feet of depth is a lot easier with a 12 or 14 foot rod than a 7 foot one. A medium to medium-light action is the most fun to fish with. Spinning reels and Alvey centrepin reels are the most common choices; newer lever drag reels exist but come at a cost.

A good old eggbeater reel with a rear drag is a solid choice when not using an Alvey 55A or 60A. A long rod paired with a rear-drag reel helps you fight a big luderick away from rock ledges without breaking off, and gives you the leverage to skull-drag a big one up when needed.

Line

Floating line is best for luderick. Monofilament in the 12 to 20lb range works well — fraying on the rocks is common, so check your mainline and leader regularly for nicks. Some anglers wax braid to help it float, but monofilament floats more reliably and tangles less in the wash.

Float rigs look complicated at first but aren't much harder to tie than a paternoster. Thread a bobber stopper onto the mainline, then the float guide, then another stopper — the bottom stopper can save your float if you break off above the swivel — followed by a swivel (a quick connect works too, but a swivel is best). This keeps lost rigging to a minimum and your line in the water more of the time.

Choosing a Float

The best floats for luderick have a single eye at the bottom stem. This shape casts further when you need the distance, and keeps the leader from tangling on the top guide during the cast. Colour matters less than visibility — you just need to be able to see it in the swell and white wash.

Since the same float gets reused, adding a few small split shot to the mainline just above the swivel — spread evenly down the leader rather than clumped — presents the weed more naturally and means you only need to replace one or two split shot if you snag or break off, rather than the whole rig.

Balancing the Float

Luderick are light biters, and plenty of anglers miss fish because the float has too much resistance. Balance it so the stem sits just out of the water and the body stays submerged — the better this balance, the more fish you'll connect with. Without it, luderick will often strip the weed off and leave a bare hook.

A 90cm leader works well, since luderick prefer deeper water — adjust the top float stopper to get the bait down further. 8 to 10lb monofilament or fluorocarbon makes a good leader, with one or two small split shot near the hook end, leaving an 8–10cm gap between the hook and the last split shot so the weed can move naturally in the current.

Double Hook Rigs

A single leader is usually enough, but a double hook (or Newcastle) rig — running two baits, different baits, or a fly and a bait — is popular, even if it tangles more often than some anglers like. To rig one, pull off around 130–140cm of leader material and tie a hook to each end, staggering them so one sits about a third of the way up. Tie a loop at the top, running the leader through the eye of the knot twice for strength, and only weight the longer leader. Bait both hooks, ideally with two different baits.

Hook Size

Size 6 to 8 hooks suit ocean fishing, where luderick tend to fight harder. Size 10 and 12 work better on calmer estuary water. A quick snell knot is worth learning to tie your hooks — it's a strong knot you can tie without reading glasses, even after a few tinnies.

Bait and Berley

Luderick bait is limited almost entirely to green weed or cabbage weed — they'll rarely take anything else, though prawns, sand worms, cunjevoi or bread will occasionally get a bite as bycatch rather than a targeted catch. You'll often find snapper and bream on the other end of a line baited with prawns or pilchards instead.

Getting weed to stay on the hook takes a bit of practice — hooking into a small bunch and twisting it around the shank before rehooking works well, and both light and dark green weed will catch fish, though luderick sometimes only want one type on a given day. Some anglers half-hitch the leader over the weed, though a half hitch has cost more than one good fish when the loop gave way under pressure.

Weed imitation flies are the best artificial option — luderick occasionally take diving baits or soft plastics, but usually only by accident. Berley helps too: chop up green weed with beach sand, wet it and form a compact ball so the sand carries it down before it disperses. A bread slurry poured from a bucket every few casts works as well — match your berley to your bait for the best results.

Setting the hook while float fishing (also called iso fishing) differs a little from bottom bait fishing. The float will either go under, sink slowly, or lay flat on the surface when a fish takes the bait — the strike can be hard and fast or slow and gentle either way. Lift the rod to take up slack and set the hook; there's no need to slam it home.

A Gentle Strike Wins More Fish

Luderick take bait gently, and both overly hard and overly gentle hook sets can miss the mark — a smooth, controlled lift tends to work best.

Looking after your catch matters for how it eats. Gill and bleed the fish quickly and get it on ice. Leaving the gutted fish in the fridge for a day or two firms up the flesh and makes it easier to fillet — fried fresh or made into a curry, both work well.

Etiquette and Drift Fishing

Understanding luderick fishing etiquette matters, especially fishing alongside other anglers — it's best learned by watching experienced anglers in action. They typically fish in groups on rock platforms or breakwalls, working the drift like a well-oiled machine.

Once the drift is established, each angler takes a turn at the front. Cast your float and let it drift to the furthest point of the run — if you don't get a bite, reel in and cast again, upcurrent this time. If another angler hooks a fish, everyone else should watch their own float and stay clear of the fish being fought.

Rock Fishing Safety

Rock fishing can be dangerous, and it costs lives every year. Never fish alone, and never fish in hazardous swell. Wear well-fitting cleats and a life preserver at all times, and never turn your back on the ocean. Watch the swell for twenty minutes before you start to get a feel for what it's doing, and don't get careless. Stay safe out there.